Vienna - India took a step towards bringing its civilian nuclear programme under international control by circulating a nuclear inspection agreement to the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to an IAEA statement Wednesday. Before US legislators can ratify the US-India nuclear agreement which gives India access to civilian nuclear fuel and technology, the IAEA Board of Governors has to approve a so-called Safeguards Agreement.
Through the safeguards agreement, the IAEA would be able to inspect additional power reactors in India, as New Delhi pledged to separate its military and civilian nuclear programmes under its pact with the US.
Diplomats say that India's insistence on its right to take "corrective measures" on the IAEA agreement might prove to be problematic.
"India may take corrective measures (...) in the event of a disruption of fuel supply," the preamble of the safeguards agreement says, according to a Western diplomat.
Experts and diplomats have said India reserves the right to remove existing reactors from the IAEA inspection regime in case the US stops guaranteeing supply of nuclear fuel.
The most likely scenario for such a supply disruption would occur if India conducted a nuclear weapons test.
Board members are considering meeting at the end of July to approve the inspection agreement, a European diplomat told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
But other Western diplomats have said their governments would require four weeks to assess the safeguards agreement.
After the IAEA Board approves the Indian safeguards agreement, the Nuclear Suppliers Group will have to change its export control rules, as India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Only then will the US Congress approve the nuclear energy pact with India.
A number of countries including Austria, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland are raising questions about the India deal in the Nuclear Suppliers Group, diplomats say, as it would give a nuclear weapons state outside the non-proliferation regime access to nuclear technology.
The Indian government has put its future at stake over the IAEA agreement and the US nuclear deal.
Communist allies of India's United Progressive Alliance Wednesday formally withdrew support for the government over the nuclear deal with the US and demanded a confidence vote in parliament.
The communists say the nuclear deal would compromise India's strategic sovereignty and make it a "stooge of US imperialism."
The Congress Party claims the ruling coalition can still muster enough seats for a majority in parliament if the no-confidence motion is called.
